Saviours and Sea Eyes
by Lavinia Swire
Summary: Harry has saved Gabrielle more than once, but maybe she saved him as well. Written for the Gift-Giving Extravaganza!


**Written for the Gift-Giving Extravaganza as a gift for Lady Phoenix Fire Rose! **

* * *

Harry saved Gabrielle when she was eight, although she couldn't remember what had really happened afterwards.

It was strange enough being in England for the first time, let alone waking up from a strange half-dream about mermaids to find herself in the lake with her hair sopping wet and sticking to her face, with what seemed to be the entire world watching her, and with the black-haired boy who everyone whispered about in the corridors helping her swim towards the shore. It was such a shock that she gasped, took in a mouthful of water and flailed desperately, trying to swim and immediately going under. But the boy – he was Harry Potter, even she knew that – helped her along, and then she could feel the ground back under her feet.

As soon as she reached the shore she was pounced on by Fleur, and then the school nurse was ushering her off and pouring something spicy and horrible down her throat. Fleur was fussing over her and wailing, but there was so much noise coming from the crowd that Gabrielle could barely hear her.

In all the chaos, she didn't think that she thanked him.

* * *

He saved her when she was thirteen, and, okay, it was more like he had saved the entire Wizarding world, plus she hadn't even been in the same country as him at the time. But she had met him twice now, which was more than any of the other Beauxbatons girls had, and she felt absurdly proud of him.

The last time she had seen him had been at Fleur's wedding, when he had spent most of the time in Ron's bedroom and then vanished entirely on the wedding day. From the very little she had seen of him when their paths had crossed, he had looked very tired and slightly irritable. She knew now that he had been trying to save the Wizarding world at the time, but she had secretly hoped then that he would dance with her.

She had danced with a few Weasley cousins instead and felt sorry for herself while outside the clouds built up thicker and the shadows came closer.

* * *

He saved her when she was fifteen and Fleur was in labour. Her sister had insisted on Gabrielle being present while her niece or nephew was born, although Gabrielle had made a number of steadily more frantic protests against it. Fleur's voice having increased in volume in proportion to her size throughout her pregnancy, however, she won the final shouting match, and now Gabrielle was stuck at Shell Cottage and sulking (she had already been banished from Fleur's room for having a 'distracting expression').

Madame Maxine had allowed her a weekend away from school, but Fleur was swearing loudly in French and Maman was driving everyone insane, and Gabrielle was ready to Floo herself back again. In fact, she has one hand on the pot of Floo powder when Harry Potter and Ginny came through the front door. Gabrielle snatched her hand away from the little jar and assumed an angelic expression.

Barely pausing to greet Gabrielle, Ginny dropped Harry's hand and raced off to find Bill, following the sound of Fleur's swearing.

There was an awkward pause. Then Gabrielle exchanged a glance with Harry Potter, the saviour of the Wizarding world, and rolled her eyes in the universal expression of disgust at the world in general.

He smiled.

They spend that afternoon wandering on the beach next to Shell Cottage, skimming stones. The company was nice, and Gabrielle thought later that he might have just saved her life again - Maman would have killed her if she'd gone back home without permission.

But she wasn't thinking about home or Fleur or her nightmare mother while Harry Potter was talking to her. He told her about when he had been at Hogwarts, little disjointed stories that missed out the bad bits, and she didn't push it because, aside from the fact that her English was hardly good enough for her to be able to conduct an in-depth interview, Harry still looked lonely even after all this time, and while he reminisced he looked - not happy, but calmer, like the sea far out.

He told her much later that maybe she had saved him that day too.

* * *

(one night when she is twenty-one she clings to him like he is a liferaft and her bed, her apartment, all of paris outside and the whole world is ocean, deep and dark, and there are alone together on the wide sea)

* * *

**I've never written Harry before and it was definitely a challenge even though it's not his POV, so I hope it still works!**


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